Artist’s rendering of the environment around the supermassive black hole at the center of Mrk 231. The broad outflow seen in the Gemini data is shown as the fan-shaped wedge at the top of the accretion disk around the black hole, in side view. A similar outflow is probably present under the disk as well. The total amount of material entrained in the broad flow is at least 400 times the mass of the sun per year. Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA, artwork by Lynette Cook

Astronomers have long suspected that something must stymie actively growing black holes, because most galaxies in the local universe don’t have them. Now, the Gemini Observatory has captured a galactic check-and-balance — a large-scale quasar outflow in the galaxy Markarian 231 that appears to be depriving a supermassive black hole its diet of gas and dust.

The work is a collaboration between David Rupke of Rhodes College in Tennessee and the University of Maryland’s Sylvain Veilleux. The results are to be published in the March 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Markarian 231 (12h56’14.23″ +56d52’25.24″) is located about 600 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation of Ursa Major. Although its mass is uncertain, some estimates indicate that Mrk 231 has a mass in stars about three times that of the Milky Way, and its central black hole is estimated to have a mass of at least 10 million solar masses or also about three times that of the supermassive black hole in the Milky Way.

Theoretical modeling specifically points to quasar outflows as the counterbalance to black hole growth. In this negative feedback loop, while the black hole is actively acquiring mass as a quasar, the outflows carry away energy and material, suppressing further growth. Small-scale outflows had been observed before, but none sufficiently powerful to account for this predicted and fundamental aspect of galaxy evolution. The Gemini observations provide the first clear evidence for outflows powerful enough to support the process necessary to starve the galactic black hole and quench star formation by limiting the availability of new material.

This extraction from the data cube shows the large-scale, fast outflow of neutral sodium at the center of the quasar Markarian 231. We are looking down onto the material that moves toward us relative to the galaxy, so the measured velocities are negative. The large black circle marks the location of the black hole, and red lines show the location of a radio jet. In addition to the quasar outflow, the jet pushes the material at the top right, resulting in even greater speeds. Part of the starburst is located at the position of the box at the lower left, and it is likely responsible for the gas motion in this region.

Study author Veilleux says Mrk 231 is an ideal laboratory for studying outflows caused by feedback from supermassive black holes: “This object is arguably the closest and best example that we know of a big galaxy in the final stages of a violent merger and in the process of shedding its cocoon and revealing a very energetic central quasar. This is really a last gasp of this galaxy; the black hole is belching its next meals into oblivion!” As extreme as Mrk 231’s eating habits appear, Veilleux adds that they are probably not unique: “When we look deep into space and back in time, quasars like this one are seen in large numbers, and all of them may have gone through shedding events like the one we are witnessing in Mrk 231.”

Although Mrk 231 is extremely well studied, and known for its collimated jets, the Gemini observations exposed a broad outflow extending in all directions for at least 8,000 light-years around the galaxy’s core. The resulting data reveal gas (characterized by sodium, which absorbs yellow light) streaming away from the galaxy center at speeds of over 1,000 kilometers per second. At this speed, the gas could go from New York to Los Angeles in about 4 seconds. This outflow is removing gas from the nucleus at a prodigious rate — more than 2.5 times the star formation rate. The speeds observed eliminate stars as the possible “engine” fueling the outflow. This leaves the black hole itself as the most likely culprit, and it can easily account for the tremendous energy required.

The energy involved is sufficient to sweep away matter from the galaxy. However, “when we say the galaxy is being blown apart, we are only referring to the gas and dust in the galaxy,” notes Rupke. “The galaxy is mostly stars at this stage in its life, and the outflow has no effect on them. The crucial thing is that the fireworks of new star formation and black hole feeding are coming to an end, most likely as a result of this outflow.”

Source: Gemini press release. The paper appears here. See also some galactic merger animations, courtesy of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

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Hon. Salacious B. CrumbFebruary 23, 2011, 10:27 AM

I’m surprised you wrote on this object instead of the recent paper by Lasota, J.P. et.al., “The origin of Variability of the Intermediate-Mass Black Hole ULX System HLX-1 in ESO 243+49.” (2011) See http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.4336
This source is in Eridanus (01h10m57s ?46° 04′ 27″), and is amazing in a binary system as the X-ray source “burps” and also has some periodicity of 380 days. It is companion is suggested the accretion rate is one thousandth of it mass per year!!
The paper says; “HLX-1 is the brightest ultra-luminous X-ray source known, located in the outskirts of the edge-on S0a spiral galaxy ESO 243-49 with a maximum luminosity of ~10^42 erg s?1″ [equivalent to 10^35 Watts], where the sun is merely 10^26 — making this demon accretion disk one billion times (10^9) more luminous than the Sun! At maximum luminosity the peak effective temperature of the accretion disk reaches 2.7 million degrees!

They conclude; “The analysis of these data suggests that there may be some unresolved contribution from the nucleus of ESO 243-49 in the X-ray emission. However, spectral modeling (using a thermal plasma model to represent emission from the galaxy) indicates that this is likely to contribute no more than ~20% of the total observed flux, and thus that the low state luminosity is dominated by emission from HLX-1.”

“Even though the black hole mass it is only 10000 solar masses, HLX-1 is likely an example of a super-Eddington black-hole.” HLX-1 is termed an intermediate black hole (or IMBH.)

Mrk 231 when compare to it is a veritable wimpy-looking scared pussy cat!!

Thanks for the story. It shows that some of these, including Mrk 231 here, are binary black holes that may hold some vital clues to the origin of such systems. (Others are V4642 Sgr, NGC 5408 X-1 and X41.4+60 in M82, which might be worth while using as comparison to the ultra-violent hard X-ray hungry monsters.)

Try this NASA/IPAC image for 2MASX J01102774-4604274
As you can see, the centre of this galaxy is a bit bright for an AGN (Active Galactic Nucleus)!
According to the NASA/IPAC EXTRAGALACTIC DATABASE (NED), this is a 15.08 magnitude galaxy, that is 1.06×0.30 arcmin, with the radial velocity of 6714 km.s^-1 making the distance about 89 Mpc. The central black hole was announced in Nature, 460, 73 (2009) by Sean Farrell; though this was known as an X-ray source by Burstein, D. ApJS, 111, 163 (1997) by the ye ol’ Einstein X-ray survey.

Also the notes say “1. 2000ApJS..128..469H Re:PDF J011027.6-460428
PDF J011027.6-460428. – Also cataloged as ESO 243-G 049, this S0
galaxy has radio contours centered on the optical nucleus. The spectrum
shows evolved stellar population absorption features. An AGN origin for
the radio emission is likely.”